Things to think about as you plan your Japan vacation
Planning your first trip to Japan brings together many factors to consider, such as:
- How many days/nights do you have for your trip?
- Budget: Less expensive than you think
- Distances and where you want to go
- Accommodation style
- Food and drink considerations
- Transportation preferences
- Language: Less important than you think
- Your children’s ages and maturity
- Time of year you can visit
- Your family’s interests
Let’s look at each, and how it can affect your Japan travel plans.
Plan your trip
Japan and our traveling family
Our US-based family of four loves Japan.
Our very first trip to Japan was with a toddler in 2013. We’ve visited multiple times since then, including three visits to Tokyo alone. Our son and daughter are now a teen and tween. As of 2026, our collective trips add up to over a year in Japan, including multiple visits to destinations such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Beppu. We also have a home in the Osaka area.
We’ve crossed the Pacific to Yokohama on a cruise ship, learned to cook takoyaki in Osaka, visited all 10 One Piece statues in Kumamoto, and basked in the steaming waters of the Hells of Beppu.
How many days/nights do you have for your trip?
When planning your first trip to Japan, aim for at least 7 nights. That also encompasses a “day zero” to arrive and start settling in, and a partial last day that includes your departure from Japan.
Check out our Day 0 guide to arriving in Japan for more on the nuances and logistics.
Especially when planning your first trip to Japan, here’s what we suggest:
- 7 nights: Stay only in Tokyo
- 14 nights: Stay 7 nights in Tokyo and 7 nights in Osaka, and while in Osaka take a day trip to Kyoto and a day trip to Nara
- 21 nights: Stay 7 nights in Tokyo, 7 nights in Osaka, then split 7 nights between your preferred combo of Kobe/Himeji, Shikoku island, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and the rest of Kyushu
We dive deeper into each of these options in our Japan itinerary guide.
Hint: Always build in some rest time, especially after a couple of big sightseeing days. We especially like taking a chill evening where we have dinner at a restaurant near our accommodation, and have a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood.
Budget: Less expensive than you think
While hanging out with other traveling families in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, some of them shared our experience that Japan was one of their favorite places to visit with kids. However, other families said they had yet to visit, because they’re concerned about “how expensive Japan is.”
Our family’s first visit to Japan was in 2013 with a toddler. Over the course of our multiple trips to Japan, here’s how we frame the cost:
- With so many high-end possibilities, the “ceiling” for costs in Japan is pretty much unlimited. You can go as high dollar as you want
- That said, the floor of costs is much lower than you might think. You can afford Japan on a family budget without compromising safety, convenience, and quality
- When conserving your travel budget is a priority, good, safe food abounds, from convenience stores to supermarkets to family friendly restaurants
- Even pharmacies often have a grocery section with fresh produce and protein
- Local public transportation is far more affordable than taxis and car rentals
- Accommodation is the area where you might have higher spend, such as if you need multiple rooms for your family
- Attractions often have reduced or free rates for kids
- While currency rates can fluctuate without notice, the yen has been at a very favorable rate compared to other world currencies (e.g., as of when we’re writing this, the current exchange rate is about JPY¥150 to USD$1.
Japan’s reputation for being expensive is overblown
Even if there are areas where you need to spend more, you can often balance that out with savings in other parts of your trip.
The short of it? Japan has long held a reputation for being expensive. The reality is that traveling here has a much broader budget spectrum than a lot of people realize.
We are by no means big-spending, high-dollar travelers. Our family of four travels on a modest budget. At the same time, we have found ways to balance saving money in Japan with prioritizing experiences that matter to us as a family. When planning your first trip to Japan, we’re confident you can too.
Hint: Credit cards are widely accepted, but it’s still useful to keep a stash of yen. When you need an ATM, the well-lit, secure 7Bank ATMs in 7-11 stores are our preferred choice, especially the song that plays as the machine brings out your cash stash. And whatever ATM you go to, always, always decline the currency conversion to your home currency. Complete the transaction in yen for a more favorable exchange rate.
Distances and where you want to go
Where you want to go and how much time you have to visit Japan will greatly influence your trip.
For starters, lots of guides give the impression that Japan is compact. It’s not. The sheer mileage between Tokyo and Osaka (about 310 miles or 499 km) is slightly less than the distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles (382 miles or 615 km).
Distances in town can matter even more. Tokyo is not a small city. The metro area is about 75 miles across, or about 120 km.
That scale quickly takes shape in your on-the-ground traveling reality. A 45-minute train or bus ride, combined with another 10 or 20 minutes of navigating stations and stops, is not uncommon in Tokyo—and that’s just one way.
In fact, we often suggest that visitors to Tokyo batch their sightseeing and activities into one or two areas per day. That way they spend less time getting around and more time doing what they want to do.
As you build day-to-day itineraries or consider what you want to visit based on the time you have, planning your first trip to Japan needs to take into account that travel time between cities, as well as between areas and attractions in town.
Accommodation style
Your accommodation style is highly personal, and it will change as your family changes. Where we stay in Japan now, with a tween and teen, is totally different from when we could bedshare with a toddler in a compact room.
Here are 3 main types of accommodation you might consider:
Hotels
Locations are often highly convenient, but you’ll probably see that convenience matched by the price tag. Finding accommodation that fits a family well can be challenging, and often spendy.
Ryokan
Traditional Japanese inns are so much fun. You have the option of adding on a Japanese-style breakfast, everyone can relax in traditional yukata, or robes, during the stay, and often you can sleep on futons on tatami mat floors.
Personally, we love it. This style can be spendy but is excellent value. Often you can put more people into one room as a family. Locations are generally in or near the main part of town. And ryokans often have an on-site onsen or hot bath. The stay becomes an immersive part of the overall travel experience, not just a place to sleep, eat, and store your stuff.
Vacation rentals
When your family needs more space, and if you’d like the option of cooking, vacation rentals such as Airbnb listings are the way to go. In our experience, the Osaka area tends to have the most family friendly listings.
Hint: We especially enjoy how often rentals are in neighborhoods. We can wander quiet residential streets, find local parks, and get more of a day-to-day slice of life for groceries, cafes, bakeries, eateries, and public transportation.
Food and drink considerations
Whether a simple convenience store egg salad sandwich, conveyor belt sushi lunch, or chicken skewers at the 2-seater teeny yakitori place down a back street that you just happened to notice when leaving the grocery store, Japan absolutely abounds with delicious food.
For families, we especially suggest chains, such as Matsuya, CoCo Curry House, and Kura Sushi. Their affordability and larger seating areas are a better fit for families. For the small places enticing you with delicious aromas, we suggest finding time for the parents to nip out for a date.
Navigating dietary restrictions, such as vegan eating or gluten-free needs, can be tricky in Japan, especially at smaller establishments. These options are there, though, and we’d suggest looking into experiences and guides from folks who have navigated these needs in their own travels.
The short of it, though? If you need to account for a dietary restriction in Japan, you can figure it out.
Translation tools such as Google Translate can also save phrases for you. If there’s something you need to relay regularly, you can save that phrase in your translation app and pull it up when needed.
Hint: Kura Sushi has locations all over Japan. It’s fun, has gamified plate disposal at your table, and affordable. If raw fish sushi isn’t to someone’s taste, there are cooked options (egg sushi and cooked shrimp have been favorites for our kids). Table-side tablets offer a more extensive menu, and you can view the menu in English.
Language: Less important than you think
You do not have to know Japanese in order to enjoy Japan or to get around. That’s especially the case in major urban areas such as Tokyo and Osaka, especially in parts of town that tourists visit regularly.
- If you pick up any Japanese, it’s helpful. But it’s not essential
- Signage, such as at train stations, is generally in both Japanese and English
- Some restaurants, especially chains, have English-language menus
- Today’s translation apps can generally translate via your phone’s camera (it’s not always easy, but it’s rare that it doesn’t work)
In other words, don’t stress if you don’t know Japanese. If you want to learn some, that’s awesome, and in our experience people appreciate it when you have even a few basic words or phrases.
You’ll get around just fine though. If not knowing the language has been holding you back from going to Japan, consider this your official permission to book that trip.
Hint: When navigating, such as choosing exits at a train station, it’s useful, but not essential, to recognize these terms and kanji:
- North exit: kitaguchi (きたぐち or 北口)
- East exit: higashiguchi (ひがしぐち or 東口)
- South exit: minamiguchi (みなみぐち or 南口)
- West exit: nishiguchi (にしぐち or 西口)
Transportation preferences
We love Japan’s public transportation. When driving out to rural areas, we’ve done the occasional 1-day car rental. Flying between destinations in Japan can also be affordable and convenient.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when getting around Japan:
- Bus stops and train stations abound in urban areas, and there’ll be fewer in outskirts or rural areas
- On public transportation, adult fare is for anyone 12+, kids 6-11 pay half the full adult fare, and under 6 are free
- When you have multiple people, sometimes the price is similar enough between public transportation and a taxi that the door-to-door taxi is more worthwhile
- Rideshare isn’t much of a thing in Japan. Technically you can use the Uber app, but it mostly just partners with taxi companies
- The GO app is the most useful for e-hailing taxis
- However you get around Japan, expect lots of walking. That includes in train stations, which can require extensive walking to get from platform to platform or from one line to another
- A lightweight, compact umbrella stroller can be useful for babies and small children. However, a large jogging stroller is typically too big for Japan
- Shinkansen high-speed trains are convenient, zippy, and fun, but they are more expensive. If you’re willing to trade saving money for a longer ride, consider other inter-city trains
- When in the Osaka area, ferries also run to destinations such as Shikoku island and Kobe
Hint: Technically, you’re supposed to carry your passport at all times while in Japan. This can be helpful sometimes with transportation. Sometimes we’ve needed to show someone our son’s passport to prove he still qualifies for a reduced fare or ticket price.
Your children’s ages and maturity
Our son was 15 months old during our first trip to Japan. Now we travel there with a tween and a teen. Where we go, what we do, and the accommodation we choose are completely different now from what they were with a toddler.
Here are some considerations about how age and maturity might affect your travel plans:
- For younger kids, include more parks and casual spaces
- Kids with sufficient maturity and trustworthiness could stay on their own at your accommodation while the adults have an outing on their own
- Small restaurants have limited seating. For example, a ramen shop we adored in Osaka’s Sumiyoshi area had 6 seats. Chain restaurants for ramen, sushi, okonomiyaki, and other iconic foods are usually easier for families to find seating
- Japan will have big sightseeing days, but you’ll also spend a lot of time on buses and trains. Pad your schedule for delays, don’t over-plan, and build in downtime for rest and recovery
- Take into account things your kids want to do. If there are lots of temples you want to see, make a compromise with an anime cafe, arcade, or other more kid-friendly option, so everyone makes compromises and their preferences are considered
Time of year you can visit
Japan is different from season to season. Here’s a quick breakdown:
Winter
Much of Japan has a fairly mild winter, and it gets milder as you go south (especially once you go WAY south, to Okinawa, where it’s pretty much tropical).
There’s not necessarily much going on, plus most places are in between the prettiest seasons of fall and spring. If you like winter sports, though, the northern island of Hokkaido and the Japanese Alps of Honshu offer world-class skiing and more.
Spring
Most popular time of year to visit, for cherry blossom (sakura) season.
Expect big crowds and high prices, along with lovely temperatures and beautiful scenery that will brighten your dreams for a lifetime.
Summer
Hot, humid, and still very popular.
Fortunately, Japanese society knows how to mitigate heat, from prevalent air conditioning to cooling wipes and handheld fans.
The heat can make it a tough time of year to visit, but if summer vacation is the timeframe you can work with, you can make it work.
Fall
Crowds fall off, temperatures are still pleasant, and above all, colorful autumn leaves bring beauty to the Japanese countryside. A delightful time to visit Japan.
Your family’s interests
Anime, traditional Japanese culture, samurai history, sports, food and drink: there are more ways to plan an interest-based trip to Japan than there are Japanese islands—and Japan has over 14,000 islands.
Fortunately, you can set up your trip, your way. You don’t have to visit every temple either. You can mix and match essential Japanese sights and activities with what matters to your family.
If you’d rather go to a baseball game than a tea ceremony, have at it. You can easily plan your trip around:
- Nature
- Traditional Japanese culture
- Sports (such as baseball and sumo especially)
- Hiking and cycling
- Anime, manga, and pop culture
- Fashion
- Electronics
And so much more.
Hint: Speaking of Japanese baseball, we suggest you book tickets in the cheering section, not the quiet section. And yes, those are real sections. Each team will have a cheering section, where you can find people leading and following group chants, swinging flags, and playing instruments.
You can enjoy the trip of a lifetime in Japan
Yes, visiting Japan comes with personal factors. Some are in your control. Others are circumstantial. No matter where each lands, the tips above can make planning your first trip to Japan the setup for the trip of a lifetime. Build it around what matters to you as best you can, and roll with the rest.
Dive deeper into planning your trip to Japan
Japan guides to cities, regions, One Piece tourism and more
Japan family travel: YouTube video playlist
